TRAPPED! With The Chickens

"I'm going out to water the chickens and close the coop for the night," said Steve, walking toward the door with a 3-liter bottle of water and a flashlight in his hands. He waved an "I Love You" at Debbie, still sitting at the table after dinner. She didn't wave back, and Steve thought, "Boy, she looks tired. I hope she goes to bed early tonight--we could both use a long sleep."

He trudged through the yard, past the barn and into the darkness. He flicked on his flashlight, and let himself through the gate into the pen around the coop. The chooks were no fools--when the sun went down, they all trooped into the coop and huddled up for warmth. He stepped into the coop and pulled the door around behind himself.

He turned on the 100W bulb they had put in to help warm the coop at night, and turned off the flashlight. December 30, and there were 4 new eggs in the corner! These girls just wouldn't quit laying! 2 dozen eggs a week, even when the temperatures had been below freezing. He picked them up and put them in a plastic bag from his pocket.

Then Steve checked on the level of feed in the hanging feeder. He had filled it the day before, so there was no worry the birds were hungry, but it paid to keep an eye on the level. A couple times, the birds ate the bin dry and he and Debbie had to scramble to come up with short-term substitutes--bird seed, peanuts, sunflower seeds. Once they popped popcorn, which the chickens seemed to really enjoy.

Finally, he picked up the water bowl and turned to the door to empty it. The door had fully closed, but there was a string leading to the latch. He would just pull it, and...

Pull it and...

Now THAT was a problem. The door wasn't opening.

Steve began to laugh. Overconfidence had bitten him right on the keister, and it was his own fault. He had just locked himself into the chicken coop.

On the Third Day of Christmas...

Hope you all are warm and well! Here on Honeyhill Farm, the temperature is in the high 20's F, but the wind is around 30 with gusts. Our 1" of snow is DRIFTING, for heaven's sake! We have had to resort to an old-fashioned way of watering the chickens: we carry it out twice a day. They have an annoying habit of tipping over the bowl. We ran power from the barn to the coop via extension cords, and we have a 100W bulb we turn on at night. It's not much, but we have had fewer frozen water bowls and the chickens aren't all huddled together in the morning. We poured several pounds of sugar into each hive on the last day we had above 40F. Sometime around the end of this week, it is supposed to be in the 40's again, and we'll have to top them off. But both hives are still alive! Debbie received a spinning wheel for Christmas--an Ashford Traveller, second-hand but in wonderful condition, off Craigslist. Do yourself a favor and check out Craigslist. Debbie got me an Android PDA, which has been interesting because all the documentation is in Chinese. Today we are both a bit under the weather--fevers, aches, pains, and other unpleasant symptoms--but it seems to be a short-duration illness. Stay warm and happy!

Whatever Happened to Simple Prudence?

Yes, I admit I seem to have abandoned all three of my faithful readers. But I've been busy! In my last post (yes, April 2009), I mentioned my friend Debbie. Well, we got married in October. Then we bought a house. If you don't think that's enough to keep you busy for over a year and a half, I respectfully suggest that you've never done either. We have another blog at honeyhillfarm.blogspot.com. It's probably going to get the updates, or possibly I'll echo to both while we decide what each is for.

Catch-Up!

In the garden, I've added another square each of cornsalad and spring onions. The original squares seem to be growing, but VERY slowly.

I had to cover the garden last night--temps here in Crofton were heading down to 31F. Tonight is supposed to stay in the low 40's.

I also have a tray of tomatos and carrot seedlings going great guns.

I've been digging out the stones in the bed along the fence, as I said I was going to...I've pulled about 2 GALLONS of stones out of about 6 cubic feet of soil. That means the bed is about 20% (!) stones.

My friend Debbie picked up some compost and topsoil for me. If I can just FINISH "rocking" the tomato bed (hey, WEEDING is a verb for removing WEEDS... ;-) I'll be able to start building that soil, just in time to put in the tomatoes and peppers.

My Holy Saturday plans were put on hold by rain that didn't stop until about 4PM. So, instead of working on the garden, I was invited to see the movie "Monsters Vs. Aliens". It's a great movie for kids OVER 8--several younger children were distressed by some of the scenes. It's a marvelous pastiche of monster movie cliches, scrambled, diced, and remade into a touching story about being yourself.

So Easter Sunday, in between the two church services and Easter Dinner, I was doing all the stuff I wanted to do on Saturday.

And then I ate too much. My diet chart isn't looking as good as it should--it leveled out because of yesterday, and I expect I'll need some time to get it dropping again.

And now I've added yet ANOTHER draw on my time. Some friends and I, including Yseulte the mad harper, visited Killarney House in Davidsonville for St. Patrick's Day. I checked the website to see what kind of performers they usually have, and found a group called "T.I.P.S.C", the Traditional Irish Pub Singing Club. I suggested to Yseulte that they might want a harper and a whistler to add to their repertoire, and she took off! Now we are practicing with them, and it looks like we're going to be their opening act on 21 April!

Now, if we're going to be an opening act, we really needed a name. Yseulte says that if I'm getting overwhelmed, it's my own fault. I say she didn't need to take me SERIOUSLY--no one ever does!

And so was born "Mutual Blame Society"!

I can shift some time around, for about a month. I'm taking a sabbatical from singing with the choir--I just get so frustrated by the arrangements! The basses are supposed to sing what would be a reasonable tenor line, the tenors are set up on an alto line, the altos are supposed to sing soprano, and the sopranos--well, it hurts. When you show up for rehearsal ANGRY, it's time to take a break. But that means that Wednesdays will be free for awhile.

And we're finally getting close to the last day for frost in my zone. I'll be able to stop worrying about freezing my little veggies.

Cheers!

What's Happening In The Garden?

Besides the turnips, the peas and spinach from the first sowing are up. I'm going to have to thin the turnips--the seeds are so small that 2 or 3 ended up in every hole, and THEY ALL SPROUTED.

I haven't seen the onions or cornsalad--I'm afraid it was just too cold for them, and I'll need to replant.

From the 2nd sowing, the arugula is up, but nothing else yet.

(UPDATE: April 1, and the kohlrabi is peeking out!)

In the house, I've started a tray with "American Flag" leeks, "Bella" hot peppers, "Mercury" bell peppers, cabbage, and basil.

I'm thinking of trying, just as an experiment, planting potatoes which have sprouted in my cupboard, and trying to sprout some sweet potatoes and carrots the same way. I would need to add 1'x1'x1' frames to get the soil deep enough for these kinds of root vegetables. I'm also thinking of trying to grow another variety of bell pepper, this one from the seeds of the pepper I'm currently eating on my salads. Plus, I have a half-dozen different kinds of beans in my closet for bean soups and such--will they germinate? Will they grow? And what if I planted some of my popcorn? ;-)

I don't have ROOM to try everything I'm thinking of...

I still need to do remediation along the fence--dig out lots of stones, add lots of compost. Time is flying!

March Diet Results

Down at the bottom of the page are the results of my diet to date! The line to watch is the BLUE one, which is an exponentially-smoothed trendline for the fluctuating weight, in PINK. I am losing about 1.75 lbs each week, which is good.

As long as the Weight line stays below the Trend line, I'm losing weight.

Diet Is Spelled DIE--T

I'm going public.

I'm on a diet, and now all--3?--of you are watching.

My goal is to lose a pound each week for the next year. That will put me back into the "Healthy" range for my Body Mass Index, which is currently hovering near "Incipient Gravitational Collapse".

The book--don't I always have a book?--I'm following is "The Hacker's Diet: How To Lose Weight and Hair Through Stress and Poor Nutrition". The title is snarky, but accurate: losing weight REQUIRES that our bodies receive fewer calories than they burn, and the stress of dealing with the deficit is what burns off the fat.

In short, it's a standard calorie-counting diet, with automated tools to track progress and filter out the random noise--smoothing the curve so you can see your REAL progress, and not get upset because you ate ONE LOUSY PEANUT and gained 2 pounds.

I'll post a chart of my progress on a more-or-less weekly basis. Right now, there's nothing to see, so be patient.

I'm reducing my portions, limiting my desserts, skipping the Chinese buffet (-gulp!-), drinking more water, and eating more veggies. From my garden. Real Soon Now. Did I mention I have turnips?